From 2004 to 2009, the line was rebuilt to add tunnels and bridges in place of switchbacks over mountainous terrain and reduced in length to 489 km (304 mi).

Construction of the Guizhou–Guangxi railway began under the Nationalist government of China during World War II to provide the country's wartime capital, Chongqing, with an outlet to the sea.

[2] In April 1939, with the Japanese invasion threatening Jiangxi and Hunan Provinces, the Chinese government chose to abandon construction of the Hunan–Guizhou railway and shifted personnel southwestward to the Guizhou–Guangxi corridor.

[2] Dushan served as a base for the Flying Tigers and reception point for the allied air shipments over "the hump" from India.

[2] Pilots shot down and rescued in rural Guangxi and Guizhou were sent to stations along route and transported by rail back to Dushan.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the new government removed rails from 300-km unrepaired section from Jinchengjiang to Qingtaipo to build the Hunan–Guangxi railway.